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Theories abound, but no one is certain. The enduring mystery of dreams is part of their allure. We do know that everybody dreams (all mammals), and that if we are deprived of dreaming, we will amp up our dreaming to make up for lost dreamtime. Rats deprived of REM sleep for an extended period lose the ability to regulate body temperature and die!

Dreams appear to be necessary for our bodies, although precisely why that is has not been settled. There are many theories, and it may be that dreams serve multiple functions. Research has shown that dreams may help regulate emotion, encode memory and consolidate learning, and that all of this happens whether we choose to work with our dreams or not. However, if we do delve more deeply into the fascinating world of our dreams and actively work with them, we are often rewarded with deeper insight, self- awareness and a larger sense of self.

Posted in News | Comments Off on Focusing: A way to deepen experiencing for more effective psychotherapy

Oct 27, 16

In the mid 1960s, a philosophy student named Eugene Gendlin started asking some hard questions about the process of psychotherapy: “Why doesn’t therapy succeed more often?… When it does succeed, what is it that those patients and therapists do? What is it that the majority fail to do?”

Over the next 15 years, Gendlin and his colleagues at the University of Chicago (including founder of the client-centered school of therapy, Carl Rogers) conducted a series of studies that concluded something surprising about psychotherapy: the key element to success is not the skill of the therapist, nor their methodology, but the therapy client’s own inner process.

For ten years, Gina suffered in silence with an illness that affects one in four women during the course of a lifetime. The illness affected her eating and sleeping habits, her ability to concentrate, her sense of self-worth, her sex drive and her ability to enjoy life. She felt tired all the time, and while she managed to keep up with her work duties, nothing was accomplished without tremendous effort. At times Gina’s illness was so severe, she felt like killing herself.

(This article by Leslie Ellis appeared in a recent issue of Insights into Clinical Counselling)

Although the classic stages of grieving delineated by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross over 40 years ago are well known and widely accepted, more current research shows that grieving does not follow such a tidy, linear formula but comes more in waves or in a spiral pattern unique to each person, and to the particular loss they are grieving. To heal from grief is now seen as less about letting go and moving on, and more about finding constructive ways to hold on to what was meaningful about the person or thing they have lost.

Begin Your Inner Journey

How we feel on the inside affects and colors what we experience in the world around us. We may not have much control over life’s inevitable ups and downs, but I believe we can do a lot about how we respond to what life brings. In my practice and training programs, I use focusing-oriented therapy and Jungian techniques that are all about tending to your inner life so you can feel peaceful and calm, even in a storm. Read More...

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